Getting out light surface scracthed on polished Aluminum Wheels

[bishop1911]

I have purchased some Edelbrock 454's and just had tires mounted. Once I have now looked at them closely, some of the poilshed areas have some very light surface scratches, that can only be seen by tilting the wheel in just the right angle in the right light. Anyway, these are by no means deep, and must have come from the manufacturer or something, being that they are in the center of the wheel and not on the outer rim. Anyway, if anyone can recommend a method or product that can be rubbed in or buffed in and how the best way to remove those for polished aluminum, that would be great. Want to keep those rims looking perfect. Thanks guys.

Jon

 

[damannhw]

Cool wheels ! I have wheels vary similar to those as well and love 'em. My favorite polish is Wenol. I don't think it's sold in any stores ? I usually get it at car shows. I'm sure there are similar polishes you can pick up at any parts store that will work fine.

 

[zookeeper]

I've used one of the Mother's buffing balls with very good results. They don't fling polish every where and if you buy an extra you can use them to buff out scratched taillight lenses, plus they fit in a drill.

 

[1320stang]

I used to use a product called Ouater (pronounced water) that was a pink cotton product that worked really well.

 

[iskwezm]

if you try to polish them, your going to do more dmage then good. They polich them with wheels and a final rouge so anything you buy is going to be more abrasive as well as the towel you use. My TT2's were the same way, i thought i would get a few spots (when new)and it just put in light scratches.

 

[mustangdave]

I've used Mother's and other polishes by hand with good results. Just hit Autozone or Advance.

 

[zookeeper]

Mother's works great for wheels like my Shelby 10 spokes, or the old-style Americans, but I sure wouldn't use it on newer, highly polished wheels. I found that out the hard way a few years ago when polishing a set of brand new Ultra wheels on my truck. Mother's will scratch them immediately. If you plan to use a hand polish, try NeverDull, it's non-abrasive and works great on highly polished wheels. I've also used a polish called Extreem and it's very good, but hard to find.

 

[SoCalCruising]

I just used a Mother's product on my dulled TTIIs with good results. The stuff I used is for metals, comes in a small jar, is white and soft. It works a lot like silver polish in removing oxidation without much rubbing. My wheels look much better. Maybe you used a different Mother's product?

 

[zookeeper]

I think the difference is that your wheels were dulled by oxidation. I used the same stuff on highly polished, forged wheels and they looked hazy by comparison.

 

[iskwezm]

I just used a Mother's product on my dulled TTIIs with good results. The stuff I used is for metals, comes in a small jar, is white and soft. It works a lot like silver polish in removing oxidation without much rubbing. My wheels look much better. Maybe you used a different Mother's product?

your refering to Mothers "billet" polish, it is a lot less abrasive and cost a little more.

 

[allcarfan]

you could try some white jeweler's rouge. If they arent deep and can only be seen by tilting the wheel, id leave it alone.

 

[ashford]

when i was polishing my intake i did it in these steps(used metal buffing wheels on a car buffer)

1. used emery compuond-works very fast to get out surface imperfections afer the wet sanding.
2. used tripoli compound-turned the rough buffing marks into "swirlies"
3. used the white stuff(forgot what its called) got rid of most of the swirlies.
4a. used jewelers rouge-smothened it out but made it sorta milky
4b. used mothers instead brought back the chrome color.

later on i mad a gauge pod for my car used the same methods for buffing and i wasn't satisfied. with alot of butt-scratching i thought i would try automotive paint stuff. after the tripoli i used meguires rough cut compound -omfg that looked so much better. then for giggles i used some 3m finesse-it jesus that looked good, fingermarks scratched it. i later fudged up by using mothers to clean it.

View attachment 485226
View attachment 485228

 

[bishop1911]

Polished Wheels

Thanks for the info. I will check out a couple of those products and try one or 2. I am goint to get a cloth buffing wheel and then try some of these products. I think I will call the wheel company as well to see what they recomend. After looking at the wheels again, the scratches are a bit more visable than I would like. I definitely want to remove them and make them shine. I know this will probably turn into a never ending fight to keep them clean and scratchless, but when they get really bad I will either chrome them or powder coat them like I had originally wanted to do. Either way, I do need to find something that works because I am going to keep them like this for now(polished aluminum) and would like to keep them in that condition for as long as possible. Thanks for the help and if anyone has any further suggestions, please feel free to throw it out there. Thanks.

Jon